Page 75 of Bond of Passion

Chapter 25

“Son! It’s been so long.” Three female voices called out to Tavin in perfect unison as he entered the hut where he’d grown up in the Carnage region of Sheoul.

His moms, Viscus, Vishis, and Vale, all scurried toward him in their matching black robes and engulfed him in a hug. “We have missed you,” Viscus said.

Vale nodded, her wavy gray hair spilling in a mop over her craggy face. “Grim was here just last year. Brought us some croucher heads for our repellant potions.”

“Grim is a mama’s boy,” Tavin said, and they cackled.

Vishis, the most serious of the three Fury sisters, never missed anything and put her fingers to Tavin’s throat. “Oh, my boy. Your symbol changed. And you’re mated!”

“What?” the other two squealed. “You bonded with a female? When? How? Who?”

It was his turn to laugh. His mothers were like hens, chattering and herding him toward their cauldron chamber, which was where they were most comfortable among the furs and skulls and steamy lava flows snaking through the stone floor. They even had a TV and fridge in there so they rarely had to leave it.

“Her name is Deja. She’s a Neebless.”

“Ooh, a Cursed One. Excellent.”

He frowned. “What? Cursed? And that’s excellent?”

Viscus, her white hair in a severe bun from which no kinky strand would dare escape, handed him a tiny glass of the blood wine they favored. He took it to be polite, even though he hated the stuff. “The Neebless are considered cursed by the Neethul.”

“Why would the Neethul consider them cursed?”

Vale dipped a giant bone spoon into one of the three bubbling cauldrons and began to stir. “We know not. But the Neethul come to us for spells to turn Neebless infants into Neethul.”

Fucking Neeths. “Where do they get the infants? Are they stealing them from the Neebless?”

“We know not.” That came from all three.

Interesting. He’d have to ask Deja if she knew anything about it.

“Why are you here, our son?” Again, they were in unison.

He sank into one of their fat hide chairs. “I was wondering if you had some spell, potion, or something that could help protect my home from intruders. Make it invisible, maybe?”

“What, exactly, is the problem?” Vale asked as she moved to another vat.

“Ah, well, the problem is people finding me and killing me.”

Vishistossed a handful of herbs into the first stirred cauldron, and the neon green bubbles hissed as they swallowed the bits of plant matter. “It’s your former job coming back to haunt you, isn’t it? We told you this would happen.”

His other two moms nodded in agreement and said, “We did. We warned you.”

“Yeah, yeah. Save the I-told-you-sos for another time, Mothers. I need to keep my mate safe.”

“Bring her here,” Viscus said in her matter-of-fact way. “You can live with us.”

He tried to think of a polite way to say, “No way in hell.” Because no fucking way. His moms didn’t know the definition of privacy and would probably do bizarre, intrusive shit like bless their bed with erotic incantations or love spells. Heck, he wouldn’t put it past them to barge into the bedroom while he and Deja were having sex to give them advice.

“I’m not going to be safe anywhere,” he said, which wasn’t a lie and avoided the no way in hell thing. “Not for a long time. If someone wants to track me down, they’ll do it. So, I’d rather stay where I am and prepare the best I can.”

“So stubborn,” Vale said.

“Always has been,” Vishis added.

Viscus nodded. “That entire litter was extra difficult.”